!!!Lagerhäuser

Warehouse Cooperatives, agricultural purchasing and retailing 
cooperatives ( agricultural cooperatives first emerged in Austria in 
1898. The first cooperative was founded in 1898 following the 
suggestion of the Landtag in Lower Austria (the idea was initiated by 
J. Ritter Mitscha von Maerheim in 1896) according to the German model 
in Poechlarn (Lower Austria) by the priest M.  Bauchinger as an answer 
to speculative futures trading. Warehouse cooperatives with head 
offices in every province emerged in all Austrian provinces except 
Vienna from 1918 onwards (1924: 246, 1936: 135). Further expansions 
followed from 1945 onwards (1948: 193 warehouse cooperatives with 638 
branches, 1958: 193 warehouse cooperatives with 1,650 branches, 1968: 
200 warehouse cooperatives with 1,177 branches). The federal warehouse 
association "Warenzentrale oesterreichischer Verbaende 
landwirtschaftlicher Genossenschaften" (Association of the Austrian 
Agricultural Warehouse Cooperatives) was founded by the provincial 
branches in 1946. It changed its name to "Oesterreichische 
Raiffeisen-Warenzentrale" (Austrian Raiffeisen Warehouse Association) 
in 1982. In 1993 "Raiffeisen Ware Austria" (RWA Warehouse 
Association), was founded; members are the Raiffeisen warehouses in 
Lower Austria, Styria and most of the warehouses in Upper Austria. The 
association is aiming towards developing into an organisation which 
meets the toughened requirements of the competitive situation in the 
European Union. The BayWa AG (Munich) is the majority owner of the 
warehouse associations of the provinces Carinthia, Tyrol and 
Vorarlberg.

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Agricultural purchasing and retailing cooperatives were included in 
the trade regulations in 1974 (186 warehouse cooperatives with 1,019 
branches) and have since been allowed to do business with non-members 
as well. This has brought about a strong increase in business 
activities in the non-agricultural sector. Apart from the sale of 
agricultural products - market share from 60 % (cereals) to 
85 % (oil seeds) - and trade with agricultural equipment - market 
share from 40 % (machines) to 70 % (pesticides) - warehouse 
cooperatives also deal with building material. Structural changes in 
agriculture have caused a number of mergers of warehouse cooperatives 
(1993: 184 warehouse cooperatives with 706 branches). In 1993 these 
cooperatives had about 178,600 members; turnover: 32.9 billion 
ATS. By 1998 there were 129 warehouse cooperatives with 724 branches 
and about 157,000 members, turnover fell to 31.4 billion ATS on 
account of price decreases in the agricultural sector since Austria's 
accession to the EU in 1995.


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